Multi-user ephemeral message gallery

ABSTRACT

A server maintains a multi-user gallery of ephemeral messages. Ephemeral messages are posted to the gallery by multiple different users for online viewing via a single, common gallery. In response to a gallery view request from any recipient device, the ephemeral messages in the multi-user are displayed on the requesting device in automated sequence, each message being displayed for a respective display duration before display of the next message in the gallery. Each ephemeral message is removed from the gallery, thus being unavailable, for viewing upon request, at expiry of a respective corresponding message availability parameter. An account administration interface is provided to enable multiple users to post to the multi-user gallery as a single organizational or celebrity account.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation and claims the benefit of priority ofU.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 14/505,478, filed Oct. 2, 2014, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the display of computer networkdelivered ephemeral messages. More particularly, this invention relatesto an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Messages (e.g., text, photo or video) delivered over computer networksare well known. However, one problem associated with such messages isthat they require an affirmative act on the part of a user to delete orremove messages from their devices once the messages have been viewed orread. As a result, in some instances, users refrain from spontaneouslysending many messages fir fear of filling or cluttering a recipient'sin-box.

In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to maintain spontaneityand expand communicative content of messaging activity, while reducingthe device management burdens imposed upon a message recipient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A server has a processor and a memory storing instructions executed bythe processor to maintain an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. Anephemeral message is posted to the ephemeral gallery. The ephemeralmessage has an associated message duration parameter and a galleryparticipation parameter. An ephemeral message is removed from theephemeral gallery in response to the identification of an expiredgallery participation parameter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The invention is more fully appreciated in connection with the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates components of an electronic device utilized inaccordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates processing operations associated with an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an electronic device for capturing and augmenting anephemeral message.

FIG. 4 illustrates an ephemeral message destination routing interfacethat may be used in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a system to implement an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates ephemeral gallery processing operations associatedwith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an ephemeral gallery data structure associated withan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates ephemeral gallery indicia associated with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates ephemeral gallery indicia associated with anotherembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates operations performed in response to an ephemeralgallery view request.

FIG. 11 illustrates an account administration interface to establish anephemeral gallery that receives ephemeral messages from multiple users.

Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout theseveral views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an electronic device 100. In one embodiment, theelectronic device 100 is a smartphone with a processor 102 incommunication with a memory 104. The processor 102 may be a centralprocessing unit and/or a graphics processing unit. The memory 104 is acombination of flash memory and random access memory. The memory 104stores an ephemeral message controller 106 to implement operations ofthe invention. The ephemeral message controller 106 may includeexecutable instructions to access a server which coordinates operationsdisclosed herein. Alternately, the ephemeral message controller 106 mayinclude executable instructions to coordinate some of the operationsdisclosed herein, while the server implements other operations.

An ephemeral message may be a text, an image, a video and the like. Thedisplay time for the ephemeral message is typically set by the messagesender. However, the display time may be a default setting or a settingspecified by the recipient. Regardless of the setting technique, themessage is transitory (i.e., the message is deleted or otherwise madeinaccessible after a certain period of time or after a certain actionhas been taken).

The processor 102 is also coupled to image sensors 115, The imagesensors 115 may be known digital image sensors, such as charge coupleddevices. The image sensors capture visual media, which is presented ondisplay 116.

A touch controller 118 is connected to the display 116 and the processor102. The touch controller 118 is responsive to haptic signals applied tothe display 116. In one embodiment, the ephemeral message controller 106monitors signals from the touch controller 118. If haptic contact isobserved by the touch controller 118 in connection with indicia of anephemeral gallery, then the ephemeral gallery is displayed to the useras a sequence of ephemeral messages.

The electronic device 100 may also include other components commonlyassociated with a smartphone, such as a wireless signal processor 120 toprovide connectivity to a wireless network, A power control circuit 122and a global positioning system processor 124 may also be utilized,While many of the components of FIG. 1 are known in the art, newfunctionality is achieved through the ephemeral message controller 106operating in conjunction with a server.

FIG. 2 illustrates processing operations associated with the ephemeralmessage controller 106. Initially, an ephemeral message is captured 200.FIG. 3 illustrates electronic device 100 and touch display 116 with aphotograph 300 operative as an ephemeral message.

The next processing operation of FIG. 2 is to determine whether to altera timer or a message duration parameter 202. FIG. 3 illustrates anexample of indicia 302 of a message duration parameter. In this example,the indicia indicates a default of 5 seconds as the message durationparameter. If the indicia is engaged (e.g., through haptic contact),then a prompt may be supplied for a new message duration parameter(e.g., 10 seconds). Such activity (202—Yes) results in the acceptance ofthe new timer value 204. If a new timer value is specified or noalteration of a timer transpires (202—No) control proceeds to block 206.The user may be prompted to augment the ephemeral message. As shown inFIG. 3, a drawing tool 304 may be supplied to allow a user to add a handdrawn message. The drawing tool 304 may be manipulated by haptic contactto enter a message or annotation of visual media. Alternately or inaddition, a keyboard may be used to type augment a message. For example,a tap on the touch display 116 may result in a keyboard being displayed,which allows a user to enter a typed message.

As shown in FIG. 2, annotations may be accepted 208 in this manner.Augmentation may also be in the form of photograph filters. That is,photograph filters may be accepted 210. For example, a firstright-to-left swipe motion on the touch display 116 may drag a firstfilter on top of the photograph. A second right-to-left swipe motion onthe touch display 116 may drag a second filter on top of the photograph.Filter processing of this type is described in commonly owned U.S. Ser.No. 14/325,270, filed Jul. 7, 2014, the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

The next operation of FIG. 2 is to accept destinations 212. As morefully described below, a destination may be used to identify intendedrecipients of a message or a location or “gallery” where one or moremessages may be accessed. FIG. 3 illustrates an icon 306 to invoke adestination list. Haptic contact on the icon may result in a destinationlist of the type shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 illustrates an electronicdevice 100 displaying a destination list. The destination list mayinclude a destination of “My Story” 402, where “My Story” is a referenceto an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. The destination list mayalso include a friends or contacts section 404 listing various friendsthat may be ephemeral message recipients. Haptic contact with a box 406associated with a listed individual or story places the correspondingindividual or story on a destination list.

Returning to FIG. 2, after the destination list is specified, theephemeral message is sent to the specified destinations 214. Forexample, the ephemeral message is sent to friends selected from section404, if any. A check is also made to determine whether the messageshould be posted to an ephemeral gallery 216. If not (216—No),processing is completed. If so (216—Yes), the processing of FIG. 6 isperformed 220. Thus, it is possible to send a message to one or morefriends and/or post to an ephemeral gallery.

FIG. 5 illustrates a system 500. The figure presents a simplifiedrepresentation of a set of electronic devices 100_1 through 100_N, whereeach electronic device may be configured as the device of FIG. 1. Eachelectronic device is in communication with a network 502, which may beany combination of wireless and wired networks.

A server 504 is also connected to the network 502. The server 504includes standard components, such as a central processing unit 510connected to input/output devices 514 via a network 512. Theinput/output devices 514 may include a keyboard, mouse, display and thelike. A network interface circuit 516 is also connected to the bus 512to provide connectivity to network 502. A memory 520 is also connectedto the bus 512. The memory 520 stores an ephemeral gallery module 522.The ephemeral gallery module 522 stores instructions executed by thecentral processing unit 510 to implement operations of the invention.For example, the ephemeral gallery module 522 may include instructionsto coordinate the processing operations of FIG. 2. These operations maybe controlled by the ephemeral gallery module 522 or they may beperformed in conjunction with selective operations performed by theephemeral message controller 106.

FIG. 6 illustrates ephemeral gallery module 522 operations performed in.accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The first operation ofFIG. 6 is to determine whether a new gallery is needed 600. As discussedin connection with FIG. 4, designating “My Story” 402 as a messagerecipient results in a post of an ephemeral message to an ephemeralgallery. If a gallery does not exist (600—Yes), then a new gallery iscreated 602. Alternately, if a gallery does exist and a user wants tocreate a new gallery, then the new gallery is created 602. The user maybe supplied a prompt to indicate whether an existing gallery should beused or a new gallery should be designated.

The message is then posted in the gallery with a gallery participationparameter 606. The gallery participation parameter is an ephemeralperiod of time that the ephemeral message will continue to exist in thegallery. For example, a first ephemeral message posted to the gallerymay have a default gallery participation parameter of 24 hours. In otherinstances, the gallery participation parameter may be set by a user. Thegallery participation parameter value decreases with the passage oftime. Thus, in this embodiment, an ephemeral message gallery subsistsfor as long as the gallery participation parameter of the last messageposed to the gallery.

In another embodiment, a gallery timer may be assigned to a gallery by auser. The gallery timer may be used to establish a lifespan of anassociated gallery and messages posted to this gallery subsist for nolonger than the life of the gallery. Thus, in some embodiments, allmessages posted to such a gallery will subsist for the duration of thelife of the gallery (regardless of posting time). In other embodiments,messages may be submitted with a gallery participation parameter. Inthese embodiments, messages expire and become inaccessible at theearlier of the gallery participation parameter or the remaining life ofthe gallery.

The next processing operation of FIG. 6 is to post activity indicia 608.Examples of activity indicia are provided below. A check is then made todetermine whether there is an expired participation parameter 610. If so(610—Yes), the ephemeral message associated with the expiredparticipation parameter is removed from the ephemeral gallery 614. If asa result of this removed message the gallery is empty (616—Yes), thenthe ephemeral gallery terminates and indicia of the gallery is removed618. If the gallery is not empty (616—No), a check is made for a newmessage 612. If a new message exists (612—Yes), then processing returnsto block 604. If a new message does not exist (612—No), then processingreturns to block 610. If an expired participation parameter does notexist (610—No), then a check is made once again for a new message 612.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data structure for an ephemeral message gallery. Afirst column 700 may have a list of messages. Another column 702 mayhave a list of message duration parameters for individual messages.Another column 704 may have a list of gallery participation parametersfor individual messages. Observe in this example that the values incolumn 702 add up to 30 seconds. Thus, the ephemeral message gallery inthis example has four messages that will take 30 seconds to display.Further observe that the oldest message (Message_1) is displayed firstand will be removed in 120 minutes. In this example, the newest message(Message_4) will remain in the ephemeral gallery for 1320 minutes atwhich point the ephemeral gallery will expire, unless another message isposted. The arrival of a new message alters the gallery timer, but doesnot alter gallery participation parameters.

FIG. 8 illustrates an interface 800 with a section 802 that designatesavailable ephemeral message galleries (stories) and a section 804 with alisting of friends (available destinations for an ephemeral message).Observe that section 802 has indicia of ephemeral message galleryactivity. FIG. 8 provides example indicia of the time that the lastmessage was posted to the ephemeral message gallery. FIG. 8 alsoprovides example graphical indicia of the amount of time remaining foran ephemeral message gallery. Observe that the first entry was posted 20minutes ago and therefore has a full circle indicative of the timeremaining for that ephemeral message gallery. On the other hand, thethird entry was posted 12 hours ago and has approximately half a circleto indicate the time remaining for that ephemeral message gallery. Thisexample contemplates a 24 hour period for an ephemeral message gallery.Naturally, other time periods may be utilized in accordance withembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates an interface 900 with information on a user'sstories. Individual stories 902 have indicia of the amount of timeremaining. Indicia 904 of the number of ephemeral gallery views is alsoprovided. Indicia 906 of screenshots taken of an ephemeral message isalso provided. This information is significant since the intent of themessage was that it be ephemeral. If a message recipient overrides thisintent by taking a screen shot, then the message sender is advised.

FIG. 10 illustrates processing operations performed by the ephemeralgallery module 522 in response to a request for an ephemeral messagegallery. As shown in FIG. 8, a user receives a list of 802 of availablestories. Haptic contact with indicia of a story is operative as arequest to view an ephemeral message gallery.

The first operation in FIG. 10 is to display the next message in thegallery 1000. In the example of FIG. 7, the oldest message is the firstmessage to be displayed. A message timer is then started 1002. Themessage timer expires at the end of the message duration parameter forthe displayed ephemeral message. In the example of FIG. 7, the firstmessage (Message_1) is displayed for 10 seconds. Block 1004 checks forthe timer to expire. Upon expiration of the timer (1004—Yes), a check ismade to determine if the gallery is empty 1006. If so (1006—Yes),processing is completed 1008. If not (1006—No), processing returns toblock 1000. This processing loop is repeated until the gallery is empty.

FIG. 11 illustrates an account administration interface 1100 toestablish an ephemeral gallery that receives ephemeral messages frommultiple users. Such a feature may be used to facilitate celebrity ororganizational accounts where numerous authorized users are allowed topost on behalf of a single account. In one embodiment, a username,display name, contact email and contact phone are specified by anaccount administrator. An authorized accounts prompt 1102 allows theaccount administrator to add other users to the ephemeral gallery. Forexample, activation of the prompt 1102 may result in prompts for ausername, display name, contact email and/or contact phone. Alternately,activation of the prompt 1102 may result in an interface of the typeshown in FIG. 4 through which authorized accounts may be added.

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer storageproduct with a computer readable storage medium having computer codethereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. Themedia and computer code may be those specially designed and constructedfor the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kindwell known and available to those having skill in the computer softwarearts. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limitedto: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape;optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and holographic devices;magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and execute program code, such asapplication-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), programmable logicdevices (“PLDs”) and ROM and RAM devices. Examples of computer codeinclude machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and filescontaining higher-level code that are executed by a computer using aninterpreter. For example, an embodiment of the invention may beimplemented using JAVA®, C++, or other object-oriented programminglanguage and development tools. Another embodiment of the invention maybe implemented in hardwired circuitry in place of, or in combinationwith, machine-executable software instructions.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specificnomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specificdetails are not required in order to practice the invention. Thus, theforegoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention arepresented for purposes of illustration and description. They are notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed; obviously, many modifications and variations are possible inview of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and describedin order to best explain the principles of the invention and itspractical applications, they thereby enable others skilled in the art tobest utilize the invention and various embodiments with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It isintended that the following claims and their equivalents define thescope of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a pluralityof ephemeral messages posted by a plurality of users via a plurality ofrespective user devices, each of the plurality of users creating andthereafter posting one or more of the plurality of ephemeral messagesvia a corresponding one of the plurality of user devices, each ephemeralmessage comprising visual media content; maintaining a multi-usergallery that comprises the plurality of ephemeral messages posted by theplurality of users, each of the plurality of ephemeral messages beingavailable for online viewing within the gallery for a respectiveavailability period, each of the plurality of ephemeral messages being,responsive to the posting thereof to the gallery, automaticallyassociated with a respective availability period that expires a defaultlength of time subsequent to posting of the corresponding ephemeralmessage to the gallery: in response to receiving a gallery view requestfrom a requesting device, causing automated sequential display of theplurality of ephemeral messages on the requesting device, the automatedsequential display comprising: displaying one of the plurality ofephemeral messages on the requesting device for a respective messageduration; at expiry of the respective message duration, commencingdisplay of a next one of the ephemeral messages; and repeating thedisplaying and the commencing display operations until all ephemeralmessages in the gallery have been displayed; and for each of theplurality of ephemeral messages, in response to expiry of thecorresponding availability period, excluding the ephemeral message fromthe gallery, thereby making the ephemeral message unavailable forsubsequent online viewing via the gallery.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the multi-user gallery is associated with an organizationalaccount in which multiple users are authorized to post ephemeralmessages on behalf of the organizational account.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the multi-user gallery is associated with a celebrity accountin which multiple users are authorized to post ephemeral messages onbehalf of the celebrity account.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising generating an account administration interface accessible viamultiple user devices for user management of the multi-user gallery. 5.The method of claim 4, wherein the account administration interfaceprovides functionality to establish the multi-user gallery.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the account administration interface providesfunctionality to manage a list of users who are authorized to postephemeral messages to the multi-user gallery.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the account administration interface provides functionalityselectively add to the list new users who are authorized to postephemeral messages to the multi-user gallery.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the maintaining of the multi-user gallery further comprisesmaintaining for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages anassociated message display parameter that indicates a display durationfor the corresponding message during viewing of the gallery.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the causing of the automated sequentialdisplay comprises: starting a message timer when viewing of one of theplurality of ephemeral messages is commenced; determining that themessage timer expires when the message timer equals the correspondingmessage display parameter; responsive to expiry of the message timer,causing display of a next one of the plurality of ephemeral messages inthe multi-user gallery; and repeating the starting, determining, andcausing display operations until all ephemeral messages in themulti-user gallery are viewed.
 10. A system comprising: one or morecomputer processors; one or more memories storing instructions executedby the one or more computer processors to configure the one or morecomputer processors to perform automated operations comprising:receiving a plurality of ephemeral messages posted by a plurality ofusers via a plurality of respective user devices, each of the pluralityof users creating and thereafter posting one or more of the plurality ofephemeral messages via a corresponding one of the plurality of userdevices, each ephemeral message comprising visual media content;maintaining a multi-user gallery that comprises the plurality ofephemeral messages posted by the plurality of users, each of theplurality of ephemeral messages being available for online viewingwithin the gallery for a respective availability period, each of theplurality of ephemeral messages being, responsive to the posting thereofto the gallery, automatically associated with a respective availabilityperiod that expires a default length of time subsequent to posting ofthe corresponding ephemeral message to the gallery; in response toreceiving a gallery view request from a requesting device, causingautomated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages onthe requesting device, the automated sequential display comprising:displaying one of the plurality of ephemeral messages on the requestingdevice for a respective message duration; at expiry of the respectivemessage duration, commencing display of a next one of the ephemeralmessages; and repeating the displaying and the commencing displayoperations until all ephemeral messages in the gallery have beendisplayed; and for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages, inresponse to expiry of the corresponding availability period, excludingthe ephemeral message from the gallery, thereby making the ephemeralmessage unavailable for subsequent online viewing via the gallery. 11.The system of claim 10, wherein the multi-user gallery is associatedwith an organizational account in which multiple users are authorized topost ephemeral messages on behalf of the organizational account.
 12. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the multi-user gallery is associated with acelebrity account in which multiple users are authorized to postephemeral messages on behalf of the celebrity account.
 13. The system ofclaim 10, further comprising generating an account administrationinterface accessible via multiple user devices for user management ofthe multi-user gallery.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the accountadministration interface provides functionality to establish themulti-user gallery.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the accountadministration interface provides functionality to manage a list ofusers who are authorized to post ephemeral messages to the multi-usergallery.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the account administrationinterface provides functionality selectively add to the list new userswho are authorized to post ephemeral messages to the multi-user gallery.17. The system of claim 10, wherein the maintaining of the multi-usergallery further comprises maintaining for each of the plurality ofephemeral messages an associated message display parameter thatindicates a display duration for the corresponding message duringviewing of the gallery.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the causingof the automated sequential display comprises: starting a message timerwhen viewing of one of the plurality of ephemeral messages is commenced;determining that the message timer expires when the message timer equalsthe corresponding message display parameter; responsive to expiry of themessage timer, causing display of a next one of the plurality ofephemeral messages in the multi-user gallery; and repeating thestarting, determining, and causing display operations until ephemeralmessages in the multi-user gallery are viewed.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium storing instructions for causing amachine, when executing the instructions, to perform operationscomprising: receiving a plurality of ephemeral messages posted by aplurality of users via a plurality of respective user devices, each ofthe plurality of users creating and thereafter posting one or more ofthe plurality of ephemeral messages via a corresponding one of theplurality of user devices, each ephemeral message comprising visualmedia content; maintaining a multi-user gallery that comprises theplurality of ephemeral messages posted by the plurality of users, eachof the plurality of ephemeral messages being available for onlineviewing within the gallery for a respective availability period, each ofthe plurality of ephemeral messages being, responsive to the postingthereof to the gallery, automatically associated with a respectiveavailability period that expires a default length of time subsequent toposting of the corresponding ephemeral message to the gallery; inresponse to receiving a gallery view request from a requesting device,causing automated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeralmessages on the requesting device, the automated sequential displaycomprising: displaying one of the plurality of ephemeral messages on therequesting device for a respective message duration; at expiry of therespective message duration, commencing display of a next one of theephemeral messages; and repeating the displaying and the commencingdisplay operations until all ephemeral messages in the gallery have beendisplayed; and for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages, inresponse to expiry of the corresponding availability period, excludingthe ephemeral message from the gallery, thereby making the ephemeralmessage unavailable for subsequent online viewing via the gallery.